A/N
Hello lovebugs happy 2013!
It's funny how much inspiration I have for this story now after just a couple weeks of break from writing!. One thing I have noticed though was that whilst writing this chapter I was going through some stuff at home and my mood really reflected in the characters so I had to stop writing and then re-write those parts once I was happier. Alls good now though :D
Sadly, this story is coming to an end and I think I would be surprised if there was another 5 chapters left in it, but who knows? just a warning :)
FrenchKiwi1994 - You had me laughing with your review about my friend's part, Guest- I didn't call Katie Karmel? unless it was a spelling mistake, but either way I'm glad you laughed because it's always good :), marsupial1974- I had to smoke about a million whilst writing it if that's any consolation ;), ReadingNaomilyAllDayErDay - Sorry it took so long! :P, Steph - Thankyoooou, Kathryn Goulding - Thanks heaps, I'm glad I tricked you, Lana - I'm happy for them too!, Mel - well here's more! :D, thejavirich - I was contemplating making them breakup until I read your review so to all the Keffy fans out there, thank thejavirich!, FourSimpleWords- Stop being so clever ;), and lastly to my cousin Andrew who reviewed 10 chapters and took me over 200 reviews! (party) ...it's not cheating! he offered...haha.
My friend Jayde would like to also thank you all for your extremely funny reviews :)
Until next time!
I don't own skins but I do alright.
Chapter 26
Emily's POV
"It looks really good Jay, how did you even manage to draw a pizza that small?" Thomas and JJ had gone and picked up our jumpers this morning from the factory that was making them and they came back looking great, JJ had put so much detail into the map he drew on the back of them, he'd even added in little pictures of monuments that we've seen along the way and they had printed our names in random places on the back of the jumper so it was more personal. Mine was in between Naomi and Freddie's.
"Thanks Emily, well I've always been particularly good at drawing so it wasn't that hard really" JJ blushed while I put my jumper on, it was a little big for me but I didn't mind because it felt like a thick blanket and I knew it was going to be cold outside.
"Tops Jaykins! Fookin lovin the artwork man" Cook's jumper was tight on him and the collar from his shirt was sticking out the top around his neck in his typical fashion statement kind of way, he grabbed JJ into a headlock and they started ruffling his hair so I left them to it and walked back over to the side of the bus where our suitcases were being loaded into.
"We look like a cult" I looked around at everyone and laughed. Naoms was right, because we were all wearing the same jumpers we did look like a cult, or a gang…or maybe even a class, but people were noticing and that much was obvious.
"A Contiki cult" Effy added thoughtfully passing us a smoke and then lighting hers. She looked unusual in a jumper and I don't know if it was because she had ordered 3 sizes larger than what she actually needed or if it was just because I hadn't ever seen her wearing one before but either way it was weird. Katie was the same though, awkward looking in a jumper, she's never been into wearing them…or wearing anything that hides her breasts really, but at least she had ordered the right size, hers even fit better than my one did but that still didn't stop her complaining that she felt like she couldn't breathe.
"Fuck sakes, stop your bitching and take it off then"
"No I'm not being the fucking odd one out"
"The bus driver isn't wearing one" Effy nodded towards the front of the bus where the driver was eating his breakfast. Katie rolled her eyes dramatically and then stormed off onto the bus, she'd been extra moody today and I couldn't tell if it was because of the crap sleep that we had all had last night or if it was just something else unrelated.
"Katie is not very happy today, no?" Thomas frowned in concern locking the big doors on the bottom of the bus.
"Seems not" Effy smirked and then looked at us and mouthed 'period'. Explains a lot, Katie's always a moody cow when it's her time of the month.
"You must know" Thommo chuckled rolling his jumper sleeves up.
Naoms and I chose a seat at the back of the bus behind Freds and Cook who were fighting about wanting to watch the same movie but not wanting to share headphones and across from them Panda was making a video of her jumper to show her mum so the back of the bus was pretty loud but I liked it that way because then people wouldn't be listening to your conversation just because it's the only thing to listen to.
"I feel like watching something scary" Naomi took the DVD list from the back seat and bit her lip reading the headlines. I got that certain feeling in my chest again by just watching her, since we've actually shagged now it's been happening a lot, I'll randomly look at her and then its like a wave of nerves is hitting my chest as hard as it can, but it's good nerves, it makes me happy. I think it also comes along with the she's mine and no one else here has done the things I've done to her thinking pattern I've adopted lately, it's not like id actually say that to anybody, but it's a nice thought.
The movie was fine, it was some thriller about a little girl that is actually a monster and kills people so that she can drink their blood. I couldn't really concentrate on it though because I noticed Effy get up out of her seat next to Katie and move to the one next to Panda about halfway through the movie and she looked annoyed so I was more interested in finding out how Katie had managed to piss her off.
Naoms must have noticed I wasn't paying much attention because my reactions to the scary parts of the movie were far too delayed, she didn't say anything though and when the movie finished I got up to go see if Katie was okay because Naoms had fallen asleep.
…
"Emsy wha…" Katie rubbed some sleep from her eyes and then sat up properly to look at me. I got to the seat about an hour ago to find her fast asleep and I wasn't exactly going to wake her up to then ask about her relationship problems, besides I think she needed a little extra sleep "why're you here? What about Campbell.."
"I think she's sleeping still" I shrugged
"What so you've been like watching me sleep? That's well creepy Ems" Katie raised an eyebrow at me and then got her phone out of her pocket and started playing with it.
"No!" I lied. Truth was, I had been staring at her, but not in a stalkerish way, I was just in deep thought and got carried away.
"Whatever"
"Is everything alright?" I cut to the chase "I mean with you and Effy"
"Of course it fucking is god it's like I can't even have a shit day without people jumping to conclusions"
"Fuck sakes Katie I was just being nice you don't have to be such a cow!" I stood up and stormed back to my other seat. Fuck her and her moods I don't even understand how Effy could put up with it anyway.
…
On the way to Berlin we stopped in a place called Dresden for some lunch and to stretch our legs, Thomas told us on the way to the restaurant that the whole city was pretty much destroyed during world war 2 so all the buildings were mostly new even though some looked hundreds of years old. We had lunch in a cellar restaurant that was really impressive, it was made of brick and arched so the room wasn't that large but there wasn't anybody else in there apart from our group.
After lunch Thomas took the people that wanted to go with him across the road to see the Green Vault museum but by this point of the tour I was really sick of seeing museums and had no interest unless they were photography related so Naoms and I went for a walk instead.
"It's kind of dull here; I reckon I've seen about 5 other people"
"Yeah" I sighed stopping "we've been walking down this road for the last 15 minutes maybe we should just go back" I had a stitch and I felt tired after eating.
"Suppose" Naomi turned around frowning at the way we had come "but I really can't be fucked walking back in this snow, lets just sit over there and wait for the bus"
20 minutes later and Naoms and I were stood outside an empty lot of land in a street that had one side full of tree's and the other full of half built buildings. The only other person around us was this old man that had gotten off the same bus as us and when Naoms tried to ask for directions he just looked at her funny so that was useless.
I had no idea where we were and neither did she, we missed the spot we were supposed to get off because there were two other passengers having an argument and it sounded much more aggressive than it probably was because it was in German but it was pretty cool and unfortunately we were too busy listening to it and missed our stop.
"No, I don't know" Naomi pinched the bridge of her nose "there's nobody around except an old bloke that couldn't understand a word I was saying, fuck sakes Eff, alright give me a minute"
I sat down on a bench and watched Naomi run to the corner of the street "Am Zwingerteich" she said into the phone and then spelt it out for Effy.
"Christ its freezing" I rubbed my hands together once Naomi had hung up and come over to the bench.
"Come here" she pulled me up by the hand and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.
"What did Effy say?"
"That I'm a stupid twat for getting us lost" Naoms chuckled "Thomas has a GPS though so they're on their way. You sitting back next to Katie again then?"
"No" I rolled my eyes and pulled away from Naoms so I could start running on the spot, I don't care if I looked stupid, it was so cold my legs were going numb. "She's such a moody cow sometimes, I tried to talk to her earlier and she snapped straight away"
"Hmm she's a mad cow" Naoms watched what I was doing; I thought she was going to laugh but she didn't, she took a smoke out of her packet and lit it. "You've got too much energy"
"I work at a gym" I shrugged but it wasn't noticeable because I was moving so fast
"Y'know…I'm pretty lazy, I mean I think I've been more active on this tour than what I've been in a long time" Naomi sat down on the bench and crossed her legs.
I stopped what I was doing because the ground was slippery and sat down next to Naomi smiling "are you worried I'll be too active for you?" I nudged her shoulder
"Nope. Just thought you should know, usually people envy the fact that I can manage to keep this amazing body when I'm so lazy"
"Cocky" I giggled taking Naomi's smoke and having a few drags "do you think that the green vault museum was actually full of green vaults?" I asked after a few moments. I had been wondering since we left the others but it wasn't enough to make me want to go in and see for myself.
"Not sure Ems" Naomi shrugged "I wouldn't be surprised though. Once Eff and I spent an English lesson looking up weird things and we came across this website, something like top 10 weird museums and one was full of fucking funeral carriages!"
"Babe" I grinned passing the smoke back to her "weren't you meant to be studying English in your English lesson"
"Probably" Naoms shrugged at the same time we heard the bus turn into the street we were on. Cook was leaning his head out of the window and yelling something, I couldn't understand what it was though because the bus had come from the other end.
"Naomioo and Emiliooo!" he greeted us at the front of the bus once we'd hopped on. I looked around and noticed that everybody seemed much happier than earlier, Panda was bouncing up and down on her seat and filming us with her camera, she looked like we were some surprise she has been waiting for. Katie and Effy were going through Katie's phone and laughing at whatever they were looking at and everyone else was just pretty much doing the same thing.
"What's going on?" I raised my eyebrow at Freddie who just chuckled to himself shaking his head, I looked at Naomi and saw her scowling at the bus driver who was also chuckling to himself and then I turned back to Cook for an explanation.
"On our way here we were tryna think of summit to do, y'know just a bit of fun, an our very own Jaykins came up with a top idea, we're gonna have a little competition of sorts. You an Blondie here are gonna start it off though becoz ya's got lost, think of it like…ya punishment". I don't think Cook's grin could have grown any bigger in this moment and I could feel the eyes of everyone on the bus staring at Naoms and I but it didn't worry me because if we were having a competition that meant others would be participating as well and most of the people on the bus wouldn't be willing to do anything I wouldn't, apart from Cook probably.
"Right, so are you going to tell us what it is we have to do then?" Naomi crossed her arms at the same time Thommo stood up from his seat next to Cook.
"Contiki Karaoke" he smiled handing me the microphone he usually used to get our attention on the bus. My smile grew wider at this because when Katie and I were about 5 Mum used to take us to get singing lessons so singing in public has never been an issue for me, and it sounded like fun, especially from a watching point of view.
"Yeah, ok" Naomi scoffed glancing at the microphone and then to Thomas and Cook "You're kidding right? There's no fucking way I'm singing anything, anywhere-"
"Aww come on babe, look, bitta Dutch courage yeah?" Cook leant down behind Thomas and then picked up a shot glass and a bottle of Vodka, who knows where he got it from.
"I'm in" I grinned
"Woooo go Emsy!" Katie yelled from her seat and everyone started cheering and clapping. I turned around and smirked at Naoms, her face went a tinge of red and it was so cute that I had to lean forward and kiss her even though Cook was standing there watching our every move. I only kissed her quickly though because I didn't want to push it and when I pulled back Cook was already holding out a shot glass for me.
"No thanks, I'll be sick" I shook my head.
"Fuck sakes, fucking bullshit games, fine! Give it here then" Naomi held her hand out
"YEAHHHH NAOMIKINS!" Cook roared spilling tiny bits of Vodka everywhere. Everybody was clapping and yelling out things and it made me laugh. "What's the song then ladies?" he turned around and looked at my sister and Effy.
"Wait, hold on a minute. Who says they get to choose the song? Why can't we?"
"Uhh because you'll choose some bollocks that nobody knows" Katie stood up and walked towards the front of the bus. "We have two choices so we'll do like, majority rules or whatever yeah?"
I shrugged nonchalantly smiling when Naoms grabbed my hand.
"Spice girls Wannabe or Spice up your life" Katie smirked at Naomi and then turned around to face the rest of the bus "we'll do it like-"
"I don't know any Spice Girls songs!" Naomi exclaimed
"She's lying" Effy stood up from her seat "First year of sixth form at Keiths for Disco night". My head snapped to Naomi as I made a mental note to ask about that later.
"I hate you" she glared at Effy
"Okay so raise your hands for Wannabe"
"Can I vote for both? They're both whizzer songs!" Panda yelled from behind her camera lens, I forgot she'd been filming us for a minute there.
"No you can only vote for one" Katie answered
Wannabe ended up winning by 1 vote and after Katie handed her phone to the bus driver so that he could plug it in she went and sat back down. Naomi took two shots before letting Cook take the bottle away and Thomas asked me for the microphone back so that he could announce the game.
Naoms and I walked back to the two steps that were kind of hidden by glass, just at the front of the bus, and I grabbed her hands smiling at her. "I really don't want to do this" she sighed and I smiled gently leaning forward to kiss her softly whilst listening to Thomas explain the game rules to everybody. I pulled back when he called us over and the bus was cheering so loudly that people probably thought we hired a party bus.
Thomas handed the microphone back to me and with a gracious bow sat back down and I heard myself laugh into it when I saw Naomi sending angry looks to the bus driver like he was a friend that had betrayed her "I'm choosing yours" I laughed into the microphone seeing Katie stand up and record us with her phone. She shrugged and laughed along with the rest of the bus.
"I'll do Geri in the chorus and Mel C " Naomi quickly whispered into my ear, I raised my eyebrow wanting to tease her but I could already hear Katie and Panda doing the laugh that at the start of the song meaning that my part was coming up fast.
"Yo, I'll tell you what I want" I stopped singing and laughed seeing everybody double over in laughter.
Naom's grabbed my wrist pulling the microphone to her mouth "So tell me what you want, what you really really want".
"I'll tell you what I want what I really, really want" our foreheads hit against each other because I needed the microphone fast. "Here, I'll hold it and you stand close" I said through the part Naomi was meant to sing.
"I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna zigazag ha" Not only Naomi and I sang that part, Panda was almost standing on her seat for it.
"If you want my future, forget my pas- fuck off Katie, you wanna do better?" Naoms replied to Katie's 'she's butchering it!'
"Don't encourage her Naoms" I giggled into the microphone, we were both completely fucking the song up but everyone was having so much fun that it didn't matter, even Naomi was laughing.
"Now don't go wasting!" I pointed at Cook just for the fun of it "my precious time"
"Get your act together we could be just fine" Naoms sang, almost falling backwards in the process because the bus driver had started driving.
The rest of the song went quite smoothly for our first debut. By the time So here's the story from A-Z you wanna get with me you gotta listen carefully, We got Em in the place…Katie had actually stood up on her seat and sung out the lyrics as loud as she could, it didn't surprise me because she adored the Spice Girls when she was younger and this had always been one of her favourite songs, especially that part because she could always point at me thinking she was clever because of the 'Em' part of it, I think she surprised Effy though who kept grinning between her and Naomi, like she didn't know which of them she would rather star in this memory more.
"ENCORE!" the bus shouted at us once the music had finished
"Fuck off" Naoms laughed into the microphone and then went to hand it back to Thomas, I quickly grabbed it before she could though.
"We'll be here all week! Thanks, thankyou, thankyou so much" I dramatically nodded at Cook, Panda and Freddie who were all still shouting and wolf whistling and then passed the microphone back to Thommo, following Naoms to a seat directly across from Eff and Katie.
"That was very good yes?" Thomas grinned at Naoms "Okay we need some group names" he looked at Cook "Naomi…Emily…"
"Naomily!" Katie stood up excitedly
"Yes! Tres Bien!, Naomily" he nodded and Naomi raised her eyebrow clearly amused by all of this "So now you all text me what you want to rate Naomily out of 10"
"Can we vote for ourselves?" I called out
"No" Thomas smiled friendly
I leaned back in my seat and watched JJ stand up and walk over to Thomas whispering something in his ear, Thomas then thanked him and added "and if somebody is to…uh, get the same points, then those teams will do another song to battle for a winner"
"Fuck sakes, Eff you better be rating us a 1!" Naomi leaned across me to hiss at her friend.
Panda and Effy were doing the next song because Panda looked like she was going to explode if she couldn't and Katie refused to be called 'Keffy'. Naoms stood up and jumped over me to get to Katie as soon as she found out it was Effy's turn, I watched them with a huge grin on my face because they both started whispering excitedly and then laughed loudly at the same time earning a death glare from Eff. It was funny and probably 50 percent of the reason I was smiling so much, but the other 50 was because seeing Katie and Naoms get along like this was a rarity, they usually have an on off friendship or just spend their time constantly snapping at each other but I don't think I've ever actually seen them agree on something so much than what they were now.
"I swear to god Katie" Effy said into the microphone "and you! I have so much of your dirty laundry" she pointed at Naoms making everyone giggle.
"Whatever babes!" Katie stood up and walked to the front of the bus whispering the song name to the bus driver. Naomi was still standing up beside my chair so I took this opportunity to grab her hand and kiss it quickly.
She looked down at me and smiled for a moment before her eyes widened in excitement "babe can you take photo's of this?"
"Sure" I let go of her hand and got my camera bag from the backpack I usually carried on the bus. Naoms made sure I had gotten my lens set up and the camera turned on before she gave the thumbs up to Katie for her to tell the bus driver to press play and when he did the whole bus exploded in laughter so loudly that we could barely even hear the music coming from the speakers.
"Whizzer!" Panda clapped as enthused as ever "Wanna do it together Eff?"
"Why not" Effy crossed her arms and stood next to a bouncing Panda, their demeanour was totally opposite at the moment and it did nothing to make this any less funnier.
"Turn around" Effy said leaning slightly closer to the microphone
"EVERY NOW AND THEN I GET A LITTLE BIT LONELY AND YOU'RE NEVER COMING AROUND" Panda put every bit of herself into it, she had her eyes closed and her free hand in the air and she was swaying back and forth, bumping shoulders with Effy every time she swayed to her left. Effy looked bored, it was brilliant!
"Turn around" Effy said into the microphone again
"Put more into it babes!" I heard Katie yell from beside Naoms while I took another photo.
"EVERY NOW AND THEN I GET A LITTLE BIT TIRED OF LISTENING TO THE SOUND OF MY TEARS"
"Turn arooooound" Effy dragged the word out making no attempt at singing. I laughed hearing Naoms double over in laughter; it was probably because I'm bias but her laughter is infectious.
"EVERY NOW AND THEN I GET A LITTLE BIT" Panda covered the microphone and I heard her tell Effy she couldn't remember the lyrics to this part, Eff told her to improvise so she did by humming into the microphone until the part that Effy had to sing, or say in her case, more than two words.
"Turn around, bright eyes"
"WOO YEAH, COME ON BONNIE!" Naoms wolf whistled clapping. I heard Effy chuckle into the microphone and Katie was again up on her seat singing along.
"EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART"
"Turn around, bright eyes"
"EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART!"
"And I need you now tonight! and I need you more than ever! and if you only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever! and we'll only be making it right cause we'll never be wrong together!" I could hear Katie and everybody else more than I could Effy, it was such a funny moment that I had to record it so I switched the mode on my camera to record and then faced it and Naoms and Katie who had both of their arms swaying in the air side by side.
"FOREVERS GONNA START TONIGHT!" Panda grabbed nothing in the air and pulled it back holding her closed hand over her heart, In between my fits of giggles I was trying to sing along as well but it was so hard because everybody on the bus was getting so into the song.
When the chorus was over everyone calmed down for the sad part and surprisingly Effy took the microphone from Panda and actually sang the part herself.
"Once upon a time I was falling in love but now I'm only falling apart" Panda joined in for the rest of the verse and they both sounded really good together! when Effy was trying that is. Cook and Freds both got up and started doing 'air drums' in the part of the song that didn't have lyrics and everybody else joined in on each chorus until it ended and by the time the song finished I was cheering so loudly that my voice kept cracking and I was sure we were going to be pulled over by the police.
Katie and Cook were up next so Eff, Naoms and I huddled in a tight circle trying to pick one that Katie would absolutely hate but it was hard because she likes singing and loves a lot of songs.
"I don't know, id probably go with Summer Nights because she'll be singing it with Cook" Effy whispered going through the Grease soundtrack on Katie's phone.
I glanced up and Katie who was already confidently holding the microphone and laughing with Cook, Thomas and JJ about something.
"What about that one" Naoms pointed to 'The One That I Want"
"Could work, either could really" I laughed
"Yes! Perfect!" Effy smirked evily "tell me about it stud" she faked Sandy's voice "fucking brilliant, he'll get so into it with her, Emily make sure you've got your camera ready" Effy passed the phone to Naoms so she could take it to the bus driver.
"You're all gonna want to film this one!" Naomi called out to the bus walking back over to us. I giggled at the suspicious look Katie sent the back of her head and then stood up to get a good view of them.
As soon as the piano started though the speakers Cook howled in laughter and Katie rolled her eyes dramatically, she still had a smirk on her face though so embarrassing her was going to be all down to Cook and how…animatedly he was going to perform.
Cook feigned shock seeing Katie there for his line of "Sandy?!" and I saw Effy send a 'take that' wink in Katie's direction. She didn't know my sister as well as I did though, it was going to take more than that for the blood to run from Katie's face.
"Tell me about it, stud" Katie lisped into the microphone and then flicked her tongue pretending to smoke. It was exactly like Sandy had done in Grease and she earned a round of applause and some wolf whistles for it. I swear in one of Katie's other lives she must have been an actress, she's such a diva.
Cook took the microphone off of her and climbed up on his seat leaning on his knee and facing her "I got chiiiiiills, they're multiplying, and I'm loooooosing control" he got back up and danced back over to Katie "Cause the power you're supplying, it's electrifying!" Cook shook his whole body up against her pretending to be shocked.
Katie rolled her eyes pushing him away and for the first time I saw a hint of redness on her cheeks but that didn't defer her. "You better shape up, cause I need a man" she was looking at Effy while she sang which made the whole thing even funnier, especially because Cook spent the whole time dancing around her dramatically.
Naoms was in tears of laughter by this point and was leaning on Freddie for support, it was adorable.
Katie only faced Cook again when it was his part to sing "Nothing left, nothing left for me to do" and during the first chorus she hit him in the chest for kissing her on the cheek when they were facing each other to sing "oo-oo-oo honey" but after that they both got into a mutual dance agreement and started holding hands and using pretty much all of the bus as a stage.
Naoms and Effy climbed onto the seat across from me to let Katie and Cook dance up the aisle to the end of the bus and everyone was clapping along to the music, singing and laughing. Cook's voice wasn't the best of voices, it sounded a bit rough and cracked a lot during his parts but his dancing more than made up for it. Katie had always been an okay singer, her lisp stood out less when she sang.
They ended the song singing the chorus over and over again, Katie was holding the microphone but you could hear Cooks voice anyway because he was always so loud. He was following her whilst she strutted up and down the bus with her hand on hips, shaking her arse. Cook pretended to almost keep falling over trying to catch her and they were both just so good at performing that you really couldn't give them anything else but a 10. After the music finished they hugged and Cook got in an arse grab earning a punch from Katie and glare from Effy but it was all in the fun of the moment so she didn't glare for too long.
Cook chose God Save the Queen and Freddie and JJ both sang in high voices with their hands on their hearts, it was extremely patriotic and really funny and I cheered JJ on as loudly as I could because he looked so embarrassed.
Dicksplash didn't want to sing and Thommo didn't make him because that would mean he would have to as well so while Thomas counted up the scores I sat back down on the seat next to Naoms and turned my camera off.
"Reckon we lost?"
"No way, not with a voice like yours Celine Dion" I laughed leaning towards her for a kiss.
Naoms rolled her eyes and kissed me back until Thomas announced that there were two winners. "Coming 4th was Jeddie, bein vu my friends!" Thomas clapped enthusiastically "and coming in 3rd, or at 2nd is…"
"Please fucking be us" Naomi sighed leaning her head against mine and closing her eyes
"Naomily!" Thomas clapped again and Naomi jumped from her seat cheering at that.
"Fucking hell" I heard Effy moan through the cheers. I wasn't that surprised that we lost because to be honest I didn't think we were that good, I mean we did okay but it was unexpected so it wasn't like Naoms and I had prepared or anything.
"So now Peffy and Cootie! Well done everybody!. Now our runners up will choose a song for each of our groups to sing for a battle for the prize!"
"What do we even win?" Katie asked Thomas. Thomas looked at Cook who shrugged in reply and then told her they would come up with something later.
"I wanna pick for Eff" Naomi motioned for Freddie and JJ to come over to us
"Alright, who do you's want because we want to choose for Cook" Freds leaned against the seat in front of us
"Effy and Panda" Naomi smirked "I've got the perfect song, hopefully Katie's got it on her phone, think she would though"
"What is it?" Freddie grinned
"Ah-ah" Naoms shook her head "wait for it".
Panda and Effy were up first and Naoms was so excited she moved to one of the front seats just to be closer to Eff when she found out what the song was. Katie sat beside me yelling out things like "you can be shit for this one babes" while Effy downed the two shots of Vodka Cook had given her.
As soon as the bus driver pressed play on the song everyone on the bus burst out in cheers, I saw Effy punch Naoms playfully in the arm for it, she was smiling though. Panda was already bopping up and down on the spot excitedly, the song suited Effy more than Panda but she was still as excited as ever.
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from realityyyyy, open your eyes, look up to the skies and seeeeeeeee" pretty much every person on the bus sang.
"I'M JUST A POOR BOY, I NEED NO SYMPHONY!"
"Its sympathy!" I yelled out to Panda who probably didn't hear me over the laughter of everyone.
"BECAUSE I'M EASY COME, EASY GO" then she stood up on the seat next to Naomi "LITTLE HIGH" and jumped off disappearing on the floor "LITTLE LOW"
Panda threw the microphone at Effy just in time for Eff to sing the next part but she didn't, she held the microphone out to the bus and we all sang as loudly as we could and then she passed it back to Panda telling her she would do the second part.
'Mama' was the extent of what Panda knew from that verse but it was okay because everybody else made up for it. She held the microphone to random peoples mouths during it and we were all giving everything we had into this song, how could you not?
"DIDN'T MEAN TO MAKE YOU CRY" Katie and I were standing on our seats holding each others hands and screaming the lyrics "IF I'M NOT BACK AGAIN THIS TIME TOMORROW, CARRY ON, CARRY ONNNNNN"
"as if nothing really matters" I heard Naomi's voice through the speakers. My head snapped over to where she was standing next to Effy and I grinned at her seeing her give the microphone back to Effy. Panda was swaying dramatically with Cook in the background and didn't look like she had any intention of singing so this one was down to Effy. I could tell she was nervous because I saw her step closer to Naoms and I knew from watching Naomi so much that it's something they do when they're scared, like they have to have physical contact. I don't even think they know they do it.
"Too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine bodies aching all the time" Effy sang it so beautifully that I stopped singing myself just so that I could hear her better. Her voice was full of emotion and it cracked just at the right parts.
"Goodbye everybody" Naomi sang into the mic with Effy, throwing an arm around her shoulder and waving at us all goofily. My girl could be funny when she wants to be.
Effy sang the rest of the verse by herself and in the "I don't wanna die, sometimes I wish id never been born at all!" I thought she was actually going to cry but then Naoms whispered something in her ear and she started laughing into the microphone.
The rest of the song was a mixture of emotion, we were either laughing or singing our hearts out and I couldn't see Katie and Cook beating it at all just based on the song choice alone. Effy sang most of it because Panda didn't know the words but she just looked happy enough to be up there dancing with Cook so it was alright.
Once the song had finally finished Katie stood up and made her way to the front of the bus confidently. I chuckled to myself that I had even doubted her because she could probably do one of the best performances you'd ever see blindfolded.
"You were really good Eff" I leaned over Naoms to tell her
"Thanks, it's been one of my favourites for years so it was really easy" she smiled back at the same time that we heard the familiar harmonica being played through the speakers.
All three of us stood up and gave Freds and JJ a thumbs up for the choice of song and then I laughed seeing Katie look less than impressed, she knew this song so she couldn't pretend she didn't, our dad loves The Beatles.
"Loveeee love me do! You knoooow I love you! I'll alwaaays be true! So pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease, love me do" Cook danced around Katie, he sounded much more consistent with this song and you could tell straight away that he was a beatles fan.
"Wo ho, love me do" Katie had her arms crossed and was taping her foot and watching him with an amused smirk while he sang to her.
Katie took the microphone from Cook and then put her hand on his chest pushing him back slowly as she sang the next part to him, they really choreographed well together, like they just knew how to dance to look like they had planned it all along.
"Love, love me do, you knoooow I love you, I'll always be true! So pleeeeeeeease" Katie stopped in front of us and faced Effy "love me dooooo, wo ho love me do"
Naoms and I laughed and I was glad I got that part on film. Effy just raised an eyebrow at Katie smirking at the same time and then Katie and Cook ran back to the front of the bus and turned around facing us all, side by side.
"Someone to loveee" Cook leaned down and sang into the microphone
"Somebody newww"
"Someone to loveee"
"Someone like youuuuu"
Then they both faced each other and laughed singing the chorus again and after that there was a part in the song that just had music, in that part Katie actually danced with Cook, like holding hands and twirling around under his arms dancing and I couldn't decided if it was more cute or funny but everybody was loving it, they definitely had a performing connection. The rest of the song went smoothly and once it was over I actually couldn't even decide who I was going to vote for.
"I'm voting Eff" Naoms whispered texting her vote to Thomas. I ended up flipping a coin over my decision and then text through Katie and Panda, which was probably a good thing anyway because if Katie ever found out I didn't vote her she'd probably have a fit over it. When Thomas announced that Katie and Cook had won by just one vote the whole bus went mental, especially Cook who ran over to Katie and lifted her up jumping up and down and shouting things I couldn't understand. I got a photo of the moment, it was nice.
…
The Berlin hostel we were staying in was called 'Happy Smile Hostel' and even though the rooms were small and had tacky yellow walls with only 3 single beds to each, it also had other facilities like a small pool at the back of the building (which I definitely wouldn't be using) and a room that was right near reception called 'Internet' that was full of old computers on small white tables.
Katie had pushed two singles together as soon as we all entered the room and claimed it as her prize for winning Contiki Karaoke so Naoms and I had spent the last 10 minutes trying to come up with something, we didn't really want to sleep in separate rooms and as nice as it would be sharing a single with her, it just wasn't realistic for two nights running and these beds looked extra smaller anyway.
"Come on, we'll go see if there's any other rooms" I held my hand out for her to grab.
The reception area looked worse than the rooms, the front desk was small and white and it had probably about a thousand smiley face stickers stuck to it and they really didn't match the orange carpet, at all.
"Hallo, how can I help you?" and older man with a thick moustache and friendly smile asked from behind the desk.
"We were wondering if there's any rooms available that have double beds in them?"
"Nicht" the man shook his head "you're not happy with room?"
"No it's fine, it's lovely…but" I turned away from Naoms and the man hearing Katie call out my name from the stairs and then rolled my eyes when I saw her enter the reception area and practically skip over to me.
"Shhh Katie" I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the desk "what do you want?"
"Eff changed her relationship status on facebook!" she squealed excitedly. I rolled my eyes but smirked at how excited Katie was about that, I couldn't see the big deal in it but Katie obviously could, I made a mental note to check facebook later and then walked back over to Naoms.
"I'm very sorry"
"No" Naomi sighed tapping her fingers on the desk "its fine, thanks anyway"
"So what are we going to do?" I asked walking back up the thin staircase
"We'll have to sleep apart, there aren't any free rooms and they don't even have double beds here"
"What if we take a bed from one of the boy's rooms and move it to ours?"
"Won't fit Ems" Naomi shrugged opening the door to the room we had our suitcases in "What do you wanna do? Stay in here with Katie and Eff or find another room?"
"I'll take another room"
…
"Hey Jay, is anybody sleeping in that bed?"
"Hi Emily, no not yet, Cook is in that one though. Would you like me to help you with your suitcase?"
"No it's fine" I dragged it through what little space was left in the room to get to the bed by the window. JJ was sitting crossed legged on his bed playing with the strings of a tiny little ukulele and I noticed he looked a little sad. "That's the tiniest Ukulele I've ever seen in my life!" I smiled at him, undoing the zip of my suitcase to get my camera and phone charger out.
"Yes it's quite small, I got it for my 16th birthday" he looked up and smiled at me
"Can you play anything?" I plugged the adapter into the wall and then sat back on the bed facing JJ again. "Come on Jay, play me something" I urged him on because he was blushing so much.
"Alright" JJ sat up straighter and started strumming the strings on the Ukulele. The song he was playing sounded so familiar, I crawled over to the edge of my bed just to get closer thinking it would help me guess the name of the song.
"Don't tell me what it is" JJ looked up and smiled at that while I started humming the tune to myself. "You're the one I have decided…who's one of my kind… Hey soul sister!"
"Very good" JJ chuckled putting the Ukulele down on the bed
"Don't stop! You're really good, how long did that take to learn?"
"EMILIOOOOOOO!" Cook came in the room and yelled as soon as he saw my suitcase. Freds followed him in walking over to JJ and ruffling his hair playfully. "Fook yeah, this is where it's at! Sorry Freds think ya been replaced"
"Shit, were you going to stay in here? Because I'm fine with moving rooms"
"Nuh I was planning to bunk in with Bruno, feel a bit bad for the bloke" Freddie plopped down on Cooks bed.
"Ya just wanna shag him don't ya?" Cook teased lifting his own suitcase onto a small table. I giggled watching Freddie roll his eyes "anyways Red ya up for goin out tonight? Gonna get the birfday boy a good shag, losing the V word aint it" Cook winked at JJ.
"It's your birthday today?" my head snapped to JJ who stared at his hands blushing "why didn't you tell me? I feel like such a shit friend now!" I got up off the bed and walked over to give him a hug and kiss "Happy Birthday J! Yeah I'm really up for going out!" I smiled at Cook.
"Thanks Emily"
"Tops!" Cook quickly changed his shirt "alright come on gay boy me and you gotta get this party planned, can't have out jaykins goin without some good muff on his day of birth!"
Cook and Freddie left the room cheerfully and I walked back to my bed feeling a bit bad for not knowing it was JJ's birthday today, I mean I know there was no way I could have possibly known but I wished someone had of told me, why didn't Naomi tell me? She's been friends with him for years, sort of.
"Id give anything to be normal for a day" JJ sighed sitting on the edge of his bed and leaning down to put his Ukulele back in his suitcase.
"You're nice JJ"
"I'm unusual" he looked up at me like that was what I meant to say, it wasn't, I meant it when I said he was nice but I also couldn't deny that he was an unusual person so I just smiled sympathetically and nodded. JJ looked so defeated that it made me sad, nobody should be upset on their birthday.
"Hey" I moved closer to him putting my hand on his shoulder "if you were normal, what would you do?"
JJ looked up at this and smiled "Id lose my virginity first, several times, and then id have a choccy nut milkshake without going into anaphylactic shock. Then id make Freddie and Cook take me somewhere I want to go on my birthday to do something I want to do and id tell them to fucking listen to me for once and stop ruffling my hair!" JJ was getting a little worked up again but he sighed and continued "and then id tell Effy I loved her and lose my virginity a few more tim-"
"You love Effy?" I was shocked
"Did I say that out loud?" JJ looked up at me and then looked down again
"Afraid so"
"Ah" JJ sighed leaning back and putting his head in his hands "retard! I'm a retard!, nutjob, fatcase!"
"JJ"
"Spazo! Mong! Autistic-fucking" he pulled at his hair "fruitcake!"
"JJ getting locked on" I leant forward and grabbed his arm forcefully which seemed to snap him out of it. We sat there silently for a minute, I felt so bad for JJ that he thought so little of himself and that he thought being 'normal' was such an important thing, it didn't help that not many people seemed to notice that he got upset about it.
"You know Jay, all those things you want…you don't ask for them, why don't you just ask?" JJ looked up at me and he looked conflicted "let's start with something easy, what do you want to do for your birthday?"
"I want to go bowling and have the largest spider they have"
"What's a spider?"
"It's 20 percent ice cream and 80 percent lemonade"
"Okay" I giggled "so, we'll go bowling then, I'm sure Cook and Freddie wont mind and if they do then…they can shove it up their arse"
JJ and I shared a grin and then I left the room telling him he should ask for other things he wants. I found Naoms alone in her room lying on the bed reading a book.
"Why didn't you tell me today is JJ's birthday?" I sat down at the end of the bed
"It is?" Naoms put the book down and sat up facing me "what? It's not like I'm even close to the guy" she defended herself seeing my eye roll.
"Yeah but you've know him long enough"
"Why are you getting so shitty about it? We'll just take him out later"
"We are, we're going bowling and you, Cook and Freddie are going to go out and buy him a really great present"
"Why do I have to go for that?"
"To make sure they don't get him something he won't like, like a blow up doll"
"Fine" Naomi sighed "so if I do that you'll forgive me for forgetting his birthday then?" she crawled across the bed and started kissing my shoulder softly.
"If you make sure they get him something really nice" I smirked leaning my head to the side to make it easier for her to kiss my neck. I giggled when Naomi put her arm around my waist and pulled me down on the bed with her.
"Nao-"
"Shhh" she leaned forward and crashed our lips together, I became light headed very quickly from knowing where this was going with her and her lips and hands distracted me for around 5 minutes before I had a thought.
"Lock the door"
…
"EMILY!" my head snapped to Katie. Stop zoning out you twat "fuck sakes you asked me to like, help you plan this shit so do you want my help or not because I could be thinking of well fun things to be doing right now compared to this"
After Naomi and I spent probably too much time in the room together we decided it was time to get a move on so that JJ could have a really good birthday party, doing things he wanted to do. Naoms went and got Cook and Freds and Thomas said he wanted to go as well, they left over an hour ago and since I have been sitting in the computer room with Katie and Effy planning what we could do at the bowling place for his birthday. Panda volunteered the job of distracting JJ so at least we didn't have to worry about that, he already knew we were going bowling anyway but I wanted to add in a few little surprises for him.
My problem was that I couldn't stop thinking about Naoms, I kept zoning out with the most stupid smile on my face and Katie kept cracking the shits for it. "Sorry Katie" I blushed picking my pen back up and purposely ignored the knowing smirks Effy kept sending my way.
"Whatever, so does he want balloons?"
"He isn't 5"
"You asked me to get" Katie picked up the list and read it out dramatically "Ice-cream, lemonade and party hats so don't give me that fucking shit"
"A massive glass as well!" I remembered JJ's large spider request. Katie and Effy left after that to go get some supplies and I started googling bowling places in Berlin that were open late on Thursday nights but that soon got boring so I decided to check my facebook. I didn't bother checking peoples status updates because id be sitting here for a year just trying to catch up so instead I typed in Katie's name to look at her page.
Katie (Elizabeth) Fitch is in a relationship with Effy Stonem and I laughed reading the comments.
58 people like this.
James Fitch Your gfs hot bitch! Thought Ems was the only lezza, mums gonna fit it!
Katie Fitch Fuck off worm -_-
Julz Brown OMG! When did you start liking fanny Kaykay? X miss u heaps!
Katie Fitch JulJul! Effs a total hottie, catch up drinks when I get hm yeah? well miss u babes x
Brock Turner Damn hot girl!
Leigh Baker Wtf?
Sarah Palmer I'm totally up for drinks aswell babe, got heaps to tell u about Mike xx
Katie Fitch Can't wait yeah x
James Strand Woah when did you jump fences? Hot as sexy x
It pretty much just went on like that so I checked the friend requests I had and scrolled through them declining everyone I didn't know or didn't like until the mouse hovered over Effy's name. "Didn't think you'd be the type to add people" I smiled to myself accepting her request. Effy's profile was pretty boring and I could tell she didn't use it much but there were some funny photo's of the gang and I even got to see Gina in one of them. Naomi looked a lot like her, just different coloured eyes.
My messages were mostly boring, some from a couple of friends saying they missed me and about 10 from Lisa which was either random youtube links (probably to love songs) or I miss you's. I ignored them all and then remembered it still said I was in a relationship with her on facebook so I changed that.
Emily Fitch is single
"Yeah thanks for that facebook" I rolled my eyes and then changed it so that it just said I was in a relationship but didn't say who with. I had just finished sending friend requests to everybody in the gang when Dicksplash walked in, he kind of paused at the door seeing me sitting by one of the computers and it was really awkward.
"Heya"
"Hi" I replied blandly signing out of facebook and clicking on google again
"What're you doing?"
I looked up at him at that question and then pointed to the computer as if to say 'I'm on the computer you tosser'. Dicksplash leaned against the door and I was going to ask him what he was doing because he didn't make any move towards one of the computers but then that would mean id be starting a conversation with him and I just didn't want to do that, ever.
"Why are you such a bitch?"
"Excuse me?" My head snapped to his again. I didn't see that coming at all.
Dicksplash sighed and walked in the room taking the seat closest to him and then faced me again "you're never nice, like at all"
"You're a prick who's constantly trying it on with my girlfriend" I shrugged facing my computer screen again and clicking the first link on the page.
"You don't own her you know"
"She's not interested in you, isn't that obvious?" I closed the page deciding to just ask the front desk if they knew anywhere. Leaving this situation was probably the best thing I could do.
Dicksplash laughed as I left the room and I was so pissed off that I decided I needed a smoke before I did anything else. The street our hostel was on was a pretty quiet one so it didn't matter where I smoked and just as I found a spot out of the rain my phone started ringing so I took it out of my pocket and rolled my eyes as soon as I saw the caller ID. She was probably just calling to have a go at me for changing my facebook relationship status but honestly how many times can you break up with somebody?
The phone rang another 5 times and I was about to reject the call when I saw Katie's name flash across the screen. "Hey" I flicked my smoke out into the rain.
"Hey, we're in some weird fucking shop and we've got everything on the list but we're also getting alcohol for like…if the bowling place closes early so what should we get"
"Uh-"
"Eff sais JJ can drink as well, just not much"
"I don't know Katie"
"What's wrong Emsy?" Katie asked and then I heard her tell Effy to go get vodka
"Lisa, she just won't leave it"
"Do you want me to call the slag? I can be well mean if she wants to keep it up"
"No I don't want to encourage her, just hurry back"
"Yeah okay bye"
I hung up and ran back inside only managing to get a few droplets of rain on me and when I looked up I saw Dicksplash standing by the reception desk. I wanted to avoid him but I really needed to find a bowling alley that we could go to tonight and it was almost 3 already so I sighed deeply and made my way over to the desk. "Hey again" I smiled friendly at the man from earlier.
"Hallo" he smiled back
"Um, I was just wondering if you knew of any bowling alleys that are open late tonight? It's my friends birthday and we were all going to go to one"
The man looked at me like id just grown a second head and then he slowly nodded at Dicksplash who was still stood next to me, I sighed again turning to face him and then raised my eyebrow at the small piece of paper he was holding out to me.
"Jesus it's not a bloody summoning, just take it"
I took the note faintly hearing the man behind the desk chuckle to himself and then I unfolded it, it was a list of the 3 most closest bowling alley's with the address and phone number of each one on it. "Think of it as a truce alright?" Dicksplash tapped the desk with his fingers and then walked away, as he left I heard him say "I really liked her" but I didn't really care, he was a dick this entire trip and just because he did me one favour it doesn't mean everything was okay between us all of a sudden.
…
"Oh my giddy giddy, Cook! Freddie! Everyone! you didn't have t-to get th-this for me for my birthday I was just happy to go bowling!" JJ was practically drooling over a model plane that Naoms, Cook, Freds and Thommo found earlier. Naomi said the shop keeper wouldn't budge on price because it was so rare so instead of getting him individual gifts we all just chipped in for this one, the look on his face was totally worth it!
"Hows about we take it back then Jaykins?" Cook patted him on the back earning a punch in the stomach from Katie "ouch fookin ell' was just kiddin! You keep that one and rememba how much ya mates luv ya yeah?"
"Of course" JJ beamed at the box his model airplane was in, I'm not sure if he was even listening to Cook.
We got to the bowling alley at around 8 because they were opened until 1am and fortunately we were able to book two rows, the place was packed but it had disco neon lights everywhere and music playing. The food area also sold not so cheap beer but no one complained about that. So far we had finished one round of bowling with our team winning because of how good JJ was at it, Thomas and Effy were really the only team members we had to worry about from the other team.
"I'm off to get another round, everyone again?" Freddie stood up
"Wait!" I remembered JJ's spider drink "I'll come too"
On our way to the food area we passed a bunch of sleazy guys that had been eyeing the girls in our group up all night and I didn't want to give them anything to look at so I wrapped my arm around Freddie's waist and leaned into him. Thankfully he caught on and put his arm protectively around my shoulder straight away sending them a 'fuck off' glare.
"Hello, I think I spoke to somebody named Christine earlier, it was about a special drink with ice-cream and lemonade" I leaned up on my tippy toes to be able to see over the counter.
"Ja, come on around, you wanted to make it yes?"
"Yes please" I smiled nodding at Freds when he told me he'd wait there for me. I followed the young girl around the counter to the back of the bar area and she pointed out a fridge to me where they had kindly kept the ice-cream I brought earlier.
JJ said the drink was 20 percent ice-cream and 80 percent lemonade so I tried my best and then shrugged after frowning at it for a minute, it looked disgusting.
"Oh bobbins, Emily you didn't have to but I'm extremely pleased you did!" JJ took a sip of his drink and then "mmmm"ed.
"Eugh what is that?"
"It's called a spider, 20 percent ice-cream and 80 percent lemonade. You can try it if you want to" JJ held out the glass to Katie.
"No thanks" she gave me a 'is he serious' kind of look and then went off to get her drink from Freddie. I sat down on the seats beside JJ and giggled at how happy he looked.
"Thankyou Emily, I think this might possibly be my best birthday ever!"
"No problem Jay, everyone deserves to have a good birthday" I smiled tapping my knees to the beat of the music playing. "Did you do it? did you ask for stuff?"
"Well" JJ sighed putting his drink down on the table in front of us "yeah, I did a fair bit of…asking"
"And how did it go?"
"Id say, bad on the face of it, but…in another sense you might say it's too early to say" he turned to me and smiled "yeah, too early to say"
"Do you want me to tell them to stop ruffling your hair?"
"No, I think that maybe I should start asking for things myself" JJ smiled standing up "now come on, let's go see if we can beat them a second time!" he held out his hand.
"We can Jay" I laughed.
What ya think? X